Books Lead the Way

The seven alarms that she used to wake up each day for her job went off one-by-one, separated by 15 minutes of shallow sleep between. Just as she had been doing every workday for the previous 2 years, she shut them off and shut her eyes, wanting to stay comfortably in her bed rather than go into work. As the last alarm went off, she noticed the date – August 6. Her smile grew wide and she jumped out of bed to get ready.

It was her last day of work. She went through the day – shower and the good-bye tour at work. She was going to miss some people, but not the aggravating environment of a company dedicated to wanting to be spoon-fed manufacturing protocols by business partners, and then wanting to change those protocols to fit exactly what they already did. It had never made much sense to her despite the nearly 8 years she had spent there – why they aspired to be nothing other than what they were, despite having all the capability to be decidedly different, and more.

Of course, it hadn’t started that way. It had mostly changed in the previous years, along with the rest of the change that had occurred simultaneously. In fact, it’d be an accurate description to say that her life fell out from under her. She’d been fighting to heal and free herself ever since; and finally all the pieces were falling into place. It’d be at least 1-3 weeks before she received her final check.

After the workday filled with COVID-frightened masked hugs and good wishes, she got into the tinted, paint-chipped and dented car that she had had since she was 15. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she knew it was time to leave. On her way out of the state, she stopped at the gym for a swim. As she swam, she thought about where she’d go. Her sister’s place? Overseas to extended family or friends? Or friends domestically? Mexico?

-

The antiquated black flip phone buzzed in Maya’s pocket. “Yes?”

“She’s in the pool. You have 30 minutes. You know what to do. Combination is .” Said the clipped male voice on the other end of the line.

Maya hung up the phone and sighed, tucking away the phone into the pocket of the poorly fitting athletic clothes she was wearing for the short-term stint as a gym staff member that her much older brother Vincent had asked her to work just to access this woman. Maya, like many of her friends, preferred to be relaxing next to a California pool or beach, under the sun, sipping cocktails and discussing designer brands. But Vincent had become Maya’s legal guardian and manager of both the family business and the trust when they were 28 and 15. Vincent had been fair with regards to supporting all the academic pursuits and travel over the years, but disapproved heavily of the increasingly exorbitant shopping sprees that Maya went on.

Maya’s latest indiscretion included a $20,000 diamond necklace – an item that Vincent had promptly returned and sent her to Kentucky of all places, to ‘learn the value of providing for yourself’ with no access to the trust, or the platinum credit cards. Needless to say, Maya would’ve preferred to be interning with at the law firm of one of the family friends.

Over the years, Vincent had been away more and more, conducting family and mystery business. When the opportunity came to cut this working stint short, Maya had jumped on it to get back to the life of luxury she had been raised in, and free of the little room being rented from the weirdo on Craigslist to sleep in. All that was left to do was to put the little black book in this woman’s gym bag without her knowing or becoming suspicious that anything in the locker was disturbed. Sounded simple but Vincent had had her watching this woman for months – noting when how often she came to the gym, what bag she was carrying, how full and heavy the bag appeared, how long she took to change to work out, what workouts she did, how long the workouts were, clothing, shoes, mood, energy level – the list of details were endless, much like the questions Vincent asked. It had been difficult to watch her indiscreetly, and thankfully Vincent had been able to get the combination from the company after Maya had provided the serial number rather than having her pick it or try out different combinations.

Maya turned the lock’s dial. Three times clockwise to clear, 15, left 21, right 35. The lock came off. Inside the locker, the items were a mess. Shoes, bag, items for the woman to shower. Maya carefully removed the items one by one and quickly stuffed the book at the bottom of the bag before restoring the contents and locking up. Then she left her badge on her boss’ desk with a sticky note – ‘I quit!’ and left for California.

-

She finished swimming, took off her goggles, and performed the customary underwater flips she used to keep her hair from becoming a tangled mess in the chlorinated pool water before wrapping a towel around herself. After showering off, she went back to empty the contents of her locker and get situated. As she was digging around her bag for clothing, her hand stopped on a book shaped item. What’s this?

Out came a small black book. I don’t remember having this.

She opened it. Each page contained different things – numbers, symbols, text with dots under specific letters. There was no name or address to return it to. So she finished cleaning up and tucked it away. After getting to her car, she pulled out the book and her phone. With a furrowed brow she looked at the first four pages:

..

6EQ⁰EQ’EB”

.

9_AA⁰P’AD”

She put the symbols into her browser. Nothing. Then she looked at the digital keypad. There was so many combinations. Numbers could be letters, and letters could be numbers. What did those dots have to do with anything? She flipped back and forth between the pages. Maybe the dots meant the value.

Two dots, 2nd. One dot, 1st.

She came up with:

N37⁰37’32”

W122⁰7’23”

Quickly, she entered them into the GPS function to pull up an address outside of San Francisco, CA. What’s there?

She thought about it for a second and decided that she’d go, since she didn’t have a plan anyways. It was a long 34 hour drive there. She stopped at a hotel each night, making the trip in four days. During the nights she flipped through the remainder of the book, with the first four pages folded down. Nothing made much sense from the graphics. There was a drill, a sledgehammer, a box, a key, bolt-cutters, some jewelry, and then dollar signs. Some stick figures.

When she finally got to the coordinates, it showed an office building. Something to do with cancer technology. Slowly she walked up and pushed the buzzer.

“Who is this?” asked the voice.

“Angela Simmons,” she answered.

“Ms. Simmons, please come in. We’ve been expecting you.” The door unlocked as the buzzer hung up.

That’s weird. Maybe the book was a plant. How did they know that I’d come, and when I’d get here?

Cautiously, she entered. There was no one around, so she sat down on one of the leather chairs in the reception/lobby area. It didn’t look much like a cancer research center, but then again, maybe they kept the lab areas separate.

“The great Angela Simmons.” She spun around at the clipped voice to see a well-dressed man appearing out of a door that was apparently hidden in the wall.

“Yes?” She answered, still confused as to why a mysterious black book would lead her to this more mysterious place, with this stranger.

“Pleased to meet you. Vincent. Let’s speak in my office.” They shook hands, and he led her back through the door he came through, into a modern office with the glass desk dimly lit by the rising sun.

“Please, sit. Do you know why you’re here, and what I want you do to?”

Angela sat, and frowned. “You sent the book? And no, all that’s in this thing are drawings of tools that could be used to execute a robbery, but not very well.”

Vincent gave a bemused smile. “And that’s why you’re here. I was most impressed with your ability to think outside of that dreadful box your prior employer put you in. Really, some ingenious thinking. I also appreciated you leaving them. But the task is not to execute a robbery; rather to get something back for me. Inside of that box are priceless diamonds. Unfortunately, my younger sister is quite irresponsible and shouldn’t have bought them in the first place, much less allowed her friends access. I have recovered the box but cannot open it, in spite of all the so-called robbery tools. If you can open it, you of course will be paid for your services. $20,000, cash, or deposit to an account of your choosing. You’ll have room and board in this building and no one will ask about your comings and goings. If you are successful in this, I’d like to then hire you officially as a part of the company to do research, or find another place you’d fit.”

Angela stared. I need to get a box open, for $20,000? And a job offer? “What’s the catch?”

“No catch. I need a box opened, and a ballsy researcher. You seem to need a job. Our needs intersect.” Vincent waited patiently for her reply.

“Ok,” she said cautiously.

“Good,” Vincent smiled widely. He slid a keycard to her. “Here’s access to your room. Go up the stairs from the door to the left of this one. The box will be waiting there. What do you think you’ll need to get it open?”

Angela took the key. “Nitric acid, cellulose gum, glass bowl, paint brush, spray bottle, forceps, and sodium hydroxide. Goggles, nitrile gloves, and a dropper.”

Vincent nodded and she took that as her cue to leave.

-

True to his word, there was a door to the left of his office, which opened with the keycard. She climbed the dimly lit stairs to a cozy room. On the bed was a box and an envelope of cash. She counted it before tucking it away into her bag - $10,000. Half up-front, half upon completion?

She examined the box. It looked like a fairly new lockbox, steel, with a sophisticated key – despite the damage that the heavy tools had done. Suddenly a cubby-hole appeared in the wall with a quiet whirring noise. She grabbed the chemicals and safety equipment and took it to the desk at the window, along with the box. Quickly she mixed up the nitric acid into the gum and painted it along the side of the box. She sat and waited for the metal to corrode, applying more as each layer dried. Eventually a hole appeared. She then diluted the sodium hydroxide with water in the spray bottle and began spraying the hole. Fumes appears with the reaction. After the box stopped smoking, she ran the box under water, and out came a black bag. Inside it was an ornate diamond necklace. She dried it off and took it to Vincent’s office.

He looked up, surprised. “So fast?”

Angela smiled as she dropped the diamonds on his desk. “I’ll take the cash, and the job, I’ll start after a month.”

He nodded and pulled another envelope out of a drawer. “This is the start of a beautiful relationship.”

Angela took the cash. “Time will tell. In the meantime, I’ll be with family.” Later that day she got on a plane and fell asleep. Life was good. She had found a new path.